Sea Witch by Helen Hollick

The agent sat in her office puffing at her cigarette. "What you need to do, darling, is write a fantasy novel."

"But I don't do fantasy, do I? I write historical fiction."

"Yes but Harry Potter is all the rage. Why not write something for teenagers?"

The author trudged down four flights of stairs and out into the London rain wondering if she could afford tea at the Ritz. She really didn't want to write fantasy. Nor for teenagers. She liked writing historical fiction, she liked character interaction, the what motivates people, what makes them tick. She liked writing about rugged heroes that were the sort of men you wouldn't want to get into a drinking contest with, but who would, all the same, be there to fix the fuse, and know where the torch was!

*

A Holiday. A wet, windy October afternoon. The rain had poured all morning, but by early afternoon an apologetic sun was squinting from behind a barricade of grey cloud. The author decided to walk the dogs on the beach.

All week she had been researching her latest interest; the truth behind pirates. Now the film she had seen was all very well, but it was not historically accurate was it? Tortuga, for instance, was cleared of pirates in the late 1600's; Port Royal was just a naval base. Pirates did not turn into skeletons. But they did wear bright ribbons, wave cutlasses about, get drunk and have an awful lot of fun.

As she was walking down the steep cliff-path, minding the bunny-burrows and reminding one of the dogs that it was not a good idea to get stuck down one again, she wondered; "What would happen if a charming rogue, such as Jack Sparrow, met up with a white witch? Not someone like Hermione in Harry P.,  someone more like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars? A good witch, who had the Craft. She can't do magic, has no wand or spells, but she can summon a wind, or talk to her lover via telepathy.

At the bottom of the cliff, the author crossed the stream and stepped onto the beach. Immediately, she was almost knocked over by a blast from the wind, and the dogs went haring off after those two seagulls that had been bugging them all week.

The tide was ebbing, the breakers all white foam and rolling excitement. She walked along listening to the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean, cursing because the earpiece kept falling out of her ear.

Sitting on a rock, she gazed out at the ocean. It was the English Channel really, but an author has a vivid imagination. It was not too difficult to picture the hot Caribbean sun; waving palm trees; the rich turquoise blue of the sea. It rained again. Quickly, she switched to a different scene. The Florida reefs, 1715. Eleven Spanish galleons went down laden with treasure.

What if... her mind was racing, her heart beginning to thud with excitement. What if there was a 12th ship? A pirate ship? A ship that a young, handsome rogue had just commandeered? His first captaincy... he survived the storm, would want to get another ship as soon as possible.... he had a brother, a half-brother, who had bullied him as a child. A brother who had burnt his only possession, a boat called.... Acorn! The author was getting really excited now! The boy fled the Virginia tobacco plantation and became a pirate. He had a few adventures, got rich on plunder, but was, underneath all the swagger and pretence, lonely. It was alright having crumpets and strumpets, but there was also the horror of the hangman's noose dangling over him. Then one day he meets a girl. He was in deep do-do, wounded and being chased by East India Company agents and this girl... no, not a girl... the white witch... rescues him. They fall in love, but he misses the sea. Because of er, because of (the author decided to think of a because of later) because of dah-di-dah happening, there is a mix up. The pirate assumed the girl didn't love him anymore. And the girl, who was really a white witch, thought the pirate didn't love her anymore. So they were both miserable for a few months. The pirate found solace in a rum bottle (as pirates do) and the girl gave in and married the rich creep who had been pestering her all this time. Then the pirate's brother caught up with him (very annoyed because the pirate had stolen his ship)

The author's backside was getting a bit numb, so she walked on up the beach.

The annoyed bully-brother is in league with the creep who married the girl... Tiola! the author thought, her name is Tiola. (Say it as ‘Teeola’, not ‘Tee…Oh…La’)Tiola what? Tiola is all that is good - a.l.l.t.h.a.t.i.s.g.o.o.d. An anagram! Of... furious muttering... an anagram of Tiola Oldstagh!

The author walked on, she was nearing the far side of the bay now and the tumble of rocks that were full of fossils and things. Or so the guide books said. She had never found one.

OK, so the annoyed bully-brother is in league with the creep. The two men are plotting to capture the pirate and have him hanged - Captain Woodes Rogers, a real figure in history, has just become Governor of Nassau and is offering a pardon to all pirates. The two creeps arrange to meet at Nassau, guessing that the pirate will turn up looking for amnesty. Which he does - but the bully-brother nabs him and  chains him up in the bilge of a ship and heads off back to Virginia. He wants to have his fun first and punish the pirate for stealing his ship.

Tiola loves her pirate. She tells her husband to go jump in a lake and boarding the pirate's ship (which he has called Sea Witch) sets off in pursuit of her true love - having to conjure up a wind to do so. Meanwhile, the author could see a small sub-plot coming here… something about Tethys, goddess of the sea who wanted the pirate for herself?

The author was quite pleased. Lots of action, adventure and character interaction. The chance to get to know these two young lovers, the tried and trusted boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy loses girl then finds her again plot.

So all she needed was her pirate.

The wide sweep of the beach was deserted. She looked at the wet sand where the tide was scurrying in with lace-edged patterns of foam. Saw a man standing there, twenty yards away. He was tall, rugged. Had an untidy chaos of curled, dark hair with a few blue ribbons fluttering in the wind tied into it. He wore knee high boots, a faded coat and a three cornered hat. He was looking out to sea but he turned, grinned at her, showing the flash of two gold teeth. With his right hand he gave the author a small, acknowledging salute. An earring dangled from one ear. An earring shaped like an acorn.

"Hello Jesamiah Acorne," the author said.

And the author swears that every word is true.

Helen Hollick 

www.helenhollick.net

Facebook: www.facebook.com/helen.hollick

Twitter: http://twitter.com/HelenHollick
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Crestmont by Holly Weiss

Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Barn burned down, now I can see the moon.”  I hated it when I first read it. Why? I was immersed in a barn burning in my own life. Post-polio syndrome, a condition that effects people infected with polio virus as children, often returns when polio survivors reach the age of fifty. The poliovirus infected me in 1952. Well-meaning doctors encouraged polio survivors to push past the muscle weakness and paralysis. I became an expert overcomer. I received degrees from college and graduate school and went on to a successful three-decade singing career. When unrelenting back pain presented itself after every concert five years ago, I had to retire. In addition, to conserve what little energy the post-polio syndrome left me with, I was forced to cut in half other activities in my life. I grieved for years because my voice, my primary means of creative expression, had been silenced.

Then, bing! On a lark, my husband and I stayed overnight at The Crestmont Inn in the Pennsylvania Allegheny Mountains. Our room was a luxury suite converted from a staff dormitory built in 1926. I envisioned what life must have been like for young people working a summer job at a bustling inn. Then I recalled this quote:

“Another opportunity is given you as a favor—and as a burden.

The question is not:

Why did it happen this way? or

Where is it going to lead you? or

What is the price you will have to pay?

It is simply:

How are you going to make use of it?”

…Dag Hammarskjöld.

We can be so entrenched in our idea of we want for our journey that we ignore God’s guidance in the turning of corners. He had to hit me over the head with a two-by-four to show me to leave my singing behind, write a book about The Crestmont Inn, and make use of what life handed me. One voice led to another.

Although I had never written a book before, a wonderful experience opened before me. I set the novel in 1920s Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. Researching the history of the real Crestmont Inn enriched me. My music inspired me to imbue Crestmont’s main character, Gracie with the desire to sing. A Native American legend says that the Great Spirit flooded Eagles Mere Lake out of anger. I gave that a different twist, wanting to set the tone of grace around which Crestmont is built. In my novel, he cried tears of forgiveness. The eagles joined their tears with his, both mingling together to gently fill the lake called Eagles Tears or Eagles Mere.

Because grace had moved me past a sad impasse in my life, I wanted to emphasize its concept in the novel.  Crestmont main character, Gracie (purposefully named) is a courageous young woman who knows she needs to leave home to find herself. She’s not sure how she will work it all out. Allowing herself the opportunity to fulfill her desire to sing is uppermost in her mind. She says, “A dream, after all, needn’t be fueled by particulars, only desire.” Did Gracie become a famous cabaret singer? You’ll have to read Crestmont to find out. One thing I can promise you is that she found a spirit of acceptance and grace at The Crestmont Inn.

Writing was a natural progression from singing for me. Every song requires a different persona—a unique character the singer develops to make the song real. Inventing characters for Crestmont was an adventure I was well prepared for after thirty years of creating them in song. Violinist Itzhak Perlman said “Sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

I am thankful that one voice led to another—the voice of a singer to that of an author. I loved every minute of the writing. The characters of Crestmont revealed their stories to me in imaginative ways and I thank them.

Several years ago my barn burned down, but magically, now I can see the moon.

Holly's Website : http://www.hollyweiss.com/

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All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann

The story was inspired by actual events, specifically the U.S. Supreme Court case Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1842. I first learned about it when I was doing freelance copyediting for a book about Supreme Court justices. The case appealed the conviction of a bounty hunter from Maryland  (Edward Prigg) charged with kidnapping Margaret Morgan, a free woman of color living in Pennsylvania who was alleged to be an escaped slave. The court case focused on state's rights, and the ruling represented the first time a major branch of the U.S. government made a proslavery stand. But I was most interested in Margaret and what became of her.

My original goal was to write a biography, and I spent about three years researching her life -- or, at least, attempting to research her life. The sad truth is that Margaret and her fate were irrelevant at the time. The issue for most people in the mid-1800s was much bigger than one woman's fight for freedom. Yet, to me, it was all about Margaret. When I realized I didn't have enough facts to write a biography, I was devastated and grudgingly packed away my research.

Then my mother-in-law loaned me a book, a fictional biography about George Washington, by Mary Higgins Clark. It was an entertaining read, and it gave me the idea that a fictional biography might be the only way I could tell Margaret's story and really do it justice.

That's how my novel was born. Tons of secondary research went into the book. I devoured reference books, diaries, slave testimonials, newspaper archives -- anything I could get my hands on to help me better understand what the average person experienced on any given day in that era. That research provided the factual framework of the novel, and I filled in the blanks based on what my mind, my heart and my gut were telling me as each scene unfolded.

What really happed to Margaret Morgan? No one knows. What I do know is that she suffered a great injustice. And it was a similar injustice suffered by thousands of other women just like her -- wives, mothers, daughters -- during that dark period in U.S. history. That fact is what propelled the fictional story I ultimately wrote.

The history books will have you believe the story of Prigg v. Pennsylvania is important because it ended in controversy and fanned the early embers of the Civil War. This book will have you believe the story is important because it began with Margaret.

All Different Kinds of Free is available in trade paperback and e-book from Bell Bridge Books. Learn more at the official website http://www.AllDifferentKindsOfFree.com

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Asenath by Anna Patricio

My debut novel Asenath is about the little-known wife of Joseph of the multicoloured coat fame. Hardly anyone knows who she is, and that is most likely due to the fact that the Book of Genesis mentions her only in passing. In fact, whenever I tell people I have written about her, the reaction I get most of the time is, "I didn't know Joseph had a wife!"

So why write about this obscure Biblical character? Well, the mere fact that barely anything is known about her provides great opportunity for fiction. I am thus at ease to stretch my imagination as far as I please.

That is just the surface though. My deeper reason for writing about Asenath stems from my interest in the Biblical account of Joseph.I adore that story. It is a powerful tale of strength, hope and perseverance. I had known about it all my life, but it was later on that I realised how moving it is. I admire how Joseph maintained his integrity even after all he had been through: losing his mother during his childhood, being sold into slavery by his brothers, and being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. He survived it all and emerged as a very seasoned man.

My newfound interest then drove me to delve deeper into the story. I read everything I could get my hands on. First I began with Biblical commentaries, then later discovered other interesting accounts, such as Jewish folktales and Persian epic poems.

Along the way, I grew curious about his wife Asenath. I wanted to know what sort of a woman married so admirable a person as Joseph. All the Bible tells us is that she was given to him as a wife after he successfully interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams.I wanted to see if there was more info on her. Alas, when I looked her up, I found barely anything on her.I found a few ancient tales such as the Greek 'Joseph and Asenath' which has as its theme Asenath's conversion to Judaism. But other than that, nothing. Nothing to tell me of her childhood, her marriage to Joseph, her family life with Joseph etc.

In the contemporary fiction of Joseph that I read, I was not too satisfied with the portrayals of Asenath, especially because she wasn’t given much attention. I wanted someone to expand on her life with Joseph, albeit fictionally. But when I did not find what I wanted to read, I then thought to write such a story myself.

In addition, I have always loved fiction set in Ancient Egypt, and thought it might be an adventure to contribute to the Egyptian fiction offerings. I knew though that it would also entail a lot of research, to try and stay as faithful as possible to the atmosphere of that era, and that would be a lot of hard work. However, it all turned out very fulfilling in the end.

Hence, Asenath.

http://www.annapatricio.blogspot.com

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A Song in My Heart by Roma Calatayud - Stocks

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY:

Answers to this question from an interview by Billy Watkins from the Clarion Ledger Newspaper: June 18, 2011

Q: What are your earliest music memories?

A: My mother played recorded classical music every Sunday, which exposed me to various musical styles, but waltzes were my favorite.

Q: What appealed to you about orchestral music?

A: The music from composers around the world, the abundance of sounds, counter melodies, and when the main melody is repeated and performed by varying sections of the orchestra, giving the musical motif of the composition a different arrangement and emotion.

Q: Will you tell us about your book and where the idea came from?

A: It is about the life of Alejandra "Ale" Stanford who's born into a bi cultural family in Minneapolis in 1902. As a young pianist and budding composer, she resolves to become a conductor despite the obstacles. She will travel to the great cities of the world in pursuit of her goals.

The idea for the story was born in 2002 when I was producing a concert for the Minnesota Orchestra Volunteer Association. As the creator and artistic director, I selected the composers and the musical program. Then, it became clear to me what a privilege it would be to be a conductor and interpret the music of legendary composers.

In the early 1900s most of the musicians and all conductors were men. I thought "what if a young woman's dreams of being a conductor is at the core of the narrative?" That was a story that had not been told.

Q: This is historical fiction. How much of it is true?
A: Most everything around the characters' lives is true, from the debut of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, to World War I, to the Roaring Twenties.

All of the pioneers, composers, conductors, artists, dates, places and institutions are also real. What is most surprising and interesting is how the true historic time line fell almost perfectly with the fictional storyline.

Q: What is the message you want to convey?

A: It was important for the novel to be entertaining, yet written within a compelling period in history that people would enjoy.

A Song in My Heart highlights the contributions of many cultures and dozens of institutions, individuals, artists and composers from the U.S. and other countries through music and the arts.

I also wanted to convey music's relevance in our lives. And while there may be challenges in a person's life, anything is possible with conviction and determination, regardless of the odds.

The protagonist Alejandra "Ale" Stanford who faces many of life's challenges, is herself a virtuoso pianist and budding composer. The original soundtrack that accompanies the narrative serves to provide the protagonist's own creative and emotional expressions through music during pivotal times in her life.
 
A Song in My Heart is book one of a trilogy, and I look forward to completing the second book "Striking the Right Note" which begins in 1933, Berlin, Germany.

A Song in My Heart, A Historical Novel, Including CD with Original Musical Score written and composed by Roma Calatayud-Stocks. The musical score, with fourteen songs and instrumentals with classical, jazz, and Latin influences, to A Song in My Heart was composed by Roma Calatayud-Stocks and arranged and performed by Chan Poling and other excellent musicians who are listed in the book.

On a personal note, Roma serves as a trained volunteer docent at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center, and also volunteers for Minnesota’s Vocal Essence’s Cantaré Program and MacPhail Center for Music.

Blog: www.WhyTheArtsMatter.wordpress.com

http://www.RomaStocks.com

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Strategos by Gordon Doherty

Parmenion, Helikaon, Kalliades, Connovar, Bane...all of David Gemmell's characters live long in the memory weeks, months and even years after I have followed them in their quest through troubled lives and epic sagas. I never totally love them, I never quite dislike them but I always empathise with them and want to stick by their side right to the end. Then, when the end comes I feel like I've lost a good friend.

Why? Because Gemmell spiced each of his characters with something that simply 'clicks' with the human psyche. His characters don't just develop; they evolve, and rarely as they might want to. It is the choices that they make at the most intense and troubled times that truly shape their character. As any person knows all too intimately, nobody makes the right choice every time. Nobody is perfect and any reader can to empathise with that.

There are many fine authors out there who have crafted strong and memorable characters and some may well have been inspired by Gemmell's work. Indeed it is the tales of the Rigante, the Trojans, the Macedonians and the Britons that have inspired me to write of the Byzantine boy Apion in 'Strategos: Born in the Borderlands'.

Apion's life is riven in the most brutal fashion, his parents slain in a Seljuk night raid before his eyes. Orphaned, he struggles to survive in the volatile borderlands between the Byzantine and Seljuk Empires in an age where war is imminent. Then, when an old Seljuk farmer takes him under his wing, Apion is presented with a choice: to let go of his dark past and seek a happy future, or to track down the truth, knowing that it will bring conflict and pain on those he loves most.

That is where the journey begins; he will face choices in his life that will define not only his own destiny, but that of the Byzantine Empire itself...

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www.gordopolis.com/writing

Moon in Leo by Kathleen Herbert

In the 1980s Kathleen Herbert was a respected author, much in demand as a speaker, and selling her books all over Europe, the UK and America.

Imagine: a large abandoned warehouse. Nothing in it- nothing at all. Except an industrial sized fan. Does it work? OK. Move it to the middle of the warehouse. Now, on the floor (none too clean) place two copies of the same manuscript, about seven hundred pages each. Put them both down in front of the fan, go back to the wall socket, and press the switch. Wheeee- that was fun. Now go away and leave dust and pages to settle. Come back every so often over a few years and try to pick them up and put them in a pile. Eventually manage to cram the pages- every single last one of them- into two carrier bags- the sturdy sort that are supposed to last a lifetime. Hand them to a friend- and six months later, Moon in Leo is in bookshops and selling on Amazon.

Yes- I find it hard to believe too. Just over a year ago that's all I was- a friend to a writer. And now I am a publisher.

My friendship with Kathleen Herbert has lasted for well over forty years. Like all friendships, it has changed, as I married and had children (to whom she became a much loved and affectionate "Auntie") and she became a well respected author. There were gaps, high points and low points.
During the last few years there have been low points indeed, as the stroke that she had in 1994 started to take its toll, and she became prey to depression and delusion. During those dark years, we met rarely, and she allowed no-one into her house. She was often despairing and felt she was being watched. She bemoaned her own incapability- on good days with a joke, on bad days with tears.

A constant in her conversation and letters though, was the book she knew said something important she needed to share:

I have looked over my novel about Furness during the Popish Plot- which is firmly based on truth… during these last weeks, the story has suddenly become incredibly topical- … for the background  we have:

·       a King called Charles, with a complicated marital and family life

·       a society of the rich and famous who produce a new scandal with every edition of the newspapers

·       a government that is not only stale but starting to smell

·       an established religion that has run out of steam, and numbers of cults that are boiling with enthusiasm- some for good, some for evil, both inside and outside Christianity

·       and a large number of “alternative” Englands that are barely suspected to exist by “official” England

·       It’s 1678, but change the clothes and it could be today.

And later:

I wrote a novel about the different folk who have come to our islands (for good, bad, fear, food, etc) and how they are still coming. I put the story into the past, so no folk could be insulted or unhappy or frightened.

As she became less and less capable of mustering her resources to approach publishers and agents, I repeatedly offered to help: She said a well meaning friend had offered to type it and had completely messed it up; she implied that he had taken it upon himself to re-write bits of it, and had even lost the original MS.  (Remember the two almost identical copies?)

Perhaps we could meet for coffee and a meal and look at what remained, I kept saying. Despite several attempts to arrange meetings, they never happened, and there were times when she was so much in despair that I suggested she bundle it all up, put it in a box and send it to me by registered post.

Finally, gathering all her strength and all her pages, she managed to bundle the manuscript into two large carrier bags- "bags for life" - a lovely irony. And she gathered enough courage and energy to meet me outside Burnt Oak station with the bags. That was in June 2010.
It took me two days to sort the two manuscripts and I was thrilled to find they were both complete- (OK I lied about the industrial fan.) It took my husband several weeks to scan it and use OCR to transform it into a modern manuscript that we could present to publishers and agents.
How and why I lost patience and decided to short circuit them all, is another story.
She had a week or two of great energy and optimism, when she rode on the wave that had buoyed her up to gather her book together, but it was a very brief upturn in what proved to be a rapid decline in her health and spirits. She had been neglecting the physical world of eating, drinking and sleeping until she was found wandering, far from home with a dislocated shoulder, and taken to the nearest hospital.
Now, with proper food and warmth and care in sheltered accommodation she is regaining strength and clarity day by day and delighted that people are enjoying Moon in Leo, and that the message of tolerance- political, religious and personal- which is one of its strongest themes, is finally reaching those people she was so desperate to talk to.
And why did I start a new business to publish this lost book? Because I agree with Kathleen- it is an important book which tells us things we need to know; but most of all, because, having sorted it out, I then couldn't put it down!


Blog: www.trifoliumbooks.blogspot.com
Website: www.trifoliumbooks.co.uk


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